A research and learning tool for sharing information and ideas. This blog is for students of Intermedia I with Katie McGowan.

03 March 2010

Project 3: Transforming/Translating/Intervening

Due beginning March 31.

Option A: Installation art engages the viewer’s entire sensory experience in four-dimensional space. It dissolves the line between art and life (see Kaprow). It moves away from viewing art as discreet objects isolated from the environment in which they are encountered.

An installation artist uses almost any material/media to create an experience in a particular environment. Oftentimes, installation is highly site-specific. It is not confined to gallery spaces but can be material intervention in everyday public or private spaces. If you choose to install in a place other than the SA, you will need to make photos [including detail and wide shots] of the installation for your critique.

For this project you will be working individually or collaboratively to make an installation that fundamentally alters the viewers’ experience and perception of a space. To reserve the workspace attached to the classroom, consult with "Derek Andes" derek.m.andes@gmail.com, but please be mindful that others will need to use the space as well.

Option B: Performance art involves the artist and is created in real time...maybe. What makes performance art so intermedial in nature is that it is slippery and truly defies most boundaries and definitions that are imposed on it. On one end of the spectrum you can argue that a performance begins and ends in the place and time that the artist says it does. But if you are in a room waiting for a performance to start, isn't that really a part of the experience, hence part of the performance too? And approaching the place of the performance: part of the experience. Getting ready to go to the place of the performance: part of the experience. So on the other end of the spectrum, you could argue that we all are all involved in a lifelong performance, that every social act is in essence a performance, that there is no boundary between performance and life.

For this option you will create a performance art piece. Think of the performance as a way to direct and alter the experience of your audience in real-time. There is no limitation on how you choose to do this. Documentation of the performance should be included in your final portfolio.

Option C: Stage and document an intervention. Consider the way we viewed the work of Improv Everywhere—in a concise short video that captures the concept and documents the project. Please see me with questions.

In addition to the above, each artist must include a 200-250-word statement (12 pt. font, double spaced) about the piece. If this were exhibited in a gallery, this would function as wall text. The written component should be a well thought out précis that covers the thoughts that inform you piece. Projects without text will not be accepted.